June 9, 2004

A drop of blood from a thumbprick will be enough to test 10,000 elements of our health a decade or two from now, says a leading scientist.

Dr Leroy Hood told the Bio 2004 conference in San Francisco yesterday that scientists would soon be able to spot the genetic fingerprints of most ailments by running that drop of blood through a computer.

June 9, 2004

Eric Drexler, known as the father of nanotechnology, today publishes a paper that admits that self-replicating machines are not vital for large-scale molecular manufacture, and that nanotechnology-based fabrication can be thoroughly non-biological and inherently safe.

“Runaway replicators, while theoretically possible according to the laws of physics, cannot be built with today’s nanotechnology toolset,” says Dr. Drexler, writing in the Institute of Physics journal Nanotechnology. “Self-replicating machines aren’t necessary for… read more

June 8, 2004

June 8, 2004

Nantero plans to create NRAM, a high-density nonvolatile random access memory chip using nanotubes, on a standard semiconductor production line.

Like today’s flash and SRAM memories, carbon nanotube designs can maintain data when power is turned off; but they can also operate faster and on less power than flash memory, and are much cheaper and more compact than SRAM.

June 7, 2004

Bill Joy says he thinks the probability of a “civilization-changing event” is most likely in the double digits, perhaps as high as 50 percent.

He doesn’t merely ascribe these odds to terrorism; he suggests a pandemic disease might arise from a sudden accident or as a consequence of cutting-edge research. For disquieting evidence, he points out that a couple of years ago scientists assembled polio in a lab.… read more

June 7, 2004

A new generation of “targeted” therapies are transforming cancer treatment by attacking the underlying molecular mechanisms of the disease — a harbinger of a future in which cancer, while not cured, will be held in check for years by drugs tolerable enough to take on a continuing basis.

June 4, 2004

Scientists have genetically engineered plants to produce omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, usually found in fish and known to have significant health benefits. Genes for the fatty acids were inserted into a Arabidopsis plant, but could be added to many different plants. British researchers say this could lead to a new generation of food crops able to reduce the risk of heart disease and other medical conditions.

June 4, 2004

Experts recently met to discuss how robots are challenging humankind on four frontiers: war, brain augmentation, physical augmentation, and social implications. The question: what kind of ethics, if any, applies to machines? “Robot ethicists” find that a kind of moral ethics for robots needs to be considered as they become increasingly part of our daily lives.

June 4, 2004

Practical quantum information processing is likely to require atoms to process and store information and photons to transmit information within and between quantum computers.

Researchers from the University of Michigan have taken a significant step in finding a way to transfer information from atoms to photons and back by entangling a cadmium ion held in a vacuum by radio waves, and a single, free-flying ultraviolet photon. The technique is… read more

June 4, 2004

A useful self-replicating machine could be less complex than a Pentium IV chip, according to a new study of of “kinematic cellular automata” performed by General Dynamics for NASA.

Through simulations, the researchers demonstrated the feasibility of this kind of self-replication, which could in a decade or more lead to the mass manufacture of molecularly precise robots, display monitors and integrated circuits that can be programmed in the field,… read more